"I haven't heard anything, except I've gotten about 500 phone calls," said Curtis Anderson, the 56-year-old Athens businessman who paid for Jones and Ingram to go on a a fishing charter trip in the Gulf of Mexico near the end of May.

"It's unbelievable," Anderson said. "Every newspaper and every radio station in the United States has called."

Alabama investigated the case and concluded that Anderson is not an Alabama booster. The university self-reported the violation to the Southeastern Conference.

Anderson has insisted that he has no ties to Alabama and maintains that he is merely friends with Jones and Ingram.

Even though the NCAA found a violation, Anderson said he feels vindicated by the NCAA's ruling because neither Alabama nor Jones or Ingram are being punished, except for the fact that the players must pay a charity what the trip would have cost.

"They found out it's the truth, the whole truth and nothing but the truth," Anderson said.

"I've never done anything wrong, and neither have these young men.

"I don't care about me. The only thing I care about is Mark Ingram and Julio Jones."